The Rapture was First Taught by Jesus:

The Rapture is a doctrine started and taught by Jesus, continued and spread by His disciples, and believed and passionately lived out by His Church. The early church heard and understood this doctrine of Christ’s any-moment return and radiantly lived, looking for ways to please Him when He came to rescue them.

James, in the first NT letter, said that Christ was standing at the door (5:7). The second NT book was I Thessalonians, and every chapter shines with Rapture-induced hope-filled expectancy (1:9-10; 2:19-20; 3:13; 4:13-18; 5:23).

Paul’s epistles, from start to finish, are seasoned with the flavor of a focused life awaiting Christ, as in Philippians 3:20, where we, as citizens of Heaven, eagerly await Jesus. Paul confesses this in his last words of II Timothy 4, where he talks about His crown “at that day” when Jesus comes.

Peter says the same, going so far as to ask what kind of lives we should lead because we know the future (II Peter 3:11 ).

John’s Epistles are the same, in I John 3:2-3 he says that this “hope” causes us to purify our daily life looking for Christ’s coming. In Revelation 3:7, Jesus Christ identifies Himself to the Church at Philadelphia as the One who is True, Holy, and has the unstoppable Messianic Key of David. When Jesus speaks, He tells the Truth. When we listen to Him and hear what He says, we can have confidence and assurance that He knows what He is talking about.

Jesus Christ taught repeatedly (Matthew 24, Mark 13, Luke 21) that His 2nd Coming is to Judge the ungodly. That was the content of every sermon on the future that He ever preached. Each sermon was taught in the context of Israel, was focused upon the Jews, and involved the city of Jerusalem and the nation of Israel.

The Rapture is Not The 2nd Coming.
However, when Jesus spoke to believers, His emphasis was different. Jesus taught His born-again children of the faith three bedrock truths about the Rapture or His coming for His Church.

These truths are that the Rapture will be a source of comfort, similar to the Ascension, and an intentional rescue.
My favorite Prophetic Bible Study Resources are:
1. The Romans Road Tract: https://amzn.to/2UrM2Nn
2. Billy Graham’s “I Am the Way” Tract: https://amzn.to/3ha3Hkv
3. Alcorn’s “How Can We Know” Tract: https://amzn.to/3qfPG8O
4. The Bridge Gospel Tract: https://amzn.to/2UqD3fo
5. The MacArthur Study Bible I use: https://amzn.to/33vqwsm
6. The Best Cross-Reference Guide to the Bible: https://amzn.to/3vtFqLU
7. Grudem Systematic Theology: https://amzn.to/3y1M1iu
8. The DTS, Bible Knowledge Commentary set I use: https://amzn.to/2RKBAiJ
9. The Phillips, Exploring the Future book I use: https://amzn.to/3hiNtHm
10. The Payne, Encyclopedia of Prophecy I use: https://amzn.to/3y4OGIg
11. The ESV Audio Bible: https://amzn.to/3bJ4WF5
12. The NKJV Audio/Dramatized Bible: https://amzn.to/3u4BqA3
13. The KJV Audio Bible: https://amzn.to/3hHEnny
14. The NIV Dramatized Bible: https://amzn.to/2RD1Uvf
15. This is the personal-sized Bible I take with me everywhere as I travel, and that you see in the videos: https://amzn.to/3tM11ha
16. The Larger Moleskin Notebook I use: https://amzn.to/3biMwLh
17. The Smaller Moleskin Notebook I use: https://amzn.to/33vTNmN
18. These are the Bible Tabs I showed you on the videos: https://amzn.to/3boMDVt
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For more of Dr. John Barnett's Bible teaching messages go to DiscoverTheBook.org